


it's the same old show, on my radio

by who_won_the_race_back_home



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Episode Tag, F/M, we love and appreciate ska in this household
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-16
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2019-03-31 22:26:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13984605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/who_won_the_race_back_home/pseuds/who_won_the_race_back_home
Summary: Amaya is curious as to what exactly about ska makes Nate so upset.





	it's the same old show, on my radio

**Author's Note:**

> The working title for this in my drafts is "Amaya likes ska fuck u nate," so I may be overly invested in how much the last episode shit on ska. My revenge is making Amaya like it. Title from The Selecter's "On My Radio."

Nate wandered down the halls of the Waverider toward Amaya’s bunk, humming the chorus of “Refugee” to himself. Amaya had finally agreed to give Tom Petty a try, and he had spent all day figuring out which deep cuts from Damn The Torpedos he wanted to include in his crash course playlist for her. Everyone loved “Don’t Do Me Like That,” but there wasn’t nearly enough appreciation for “Shadow of a Doubt,” and Nate was on a one man mission to fix that.

The door to Amaya’s room was open and Nate found her lounging in bed, lost in a book, one that had belonged to Stein. She had taken most of his collection when they decided to give his old bunk to Wally, and was slowly working her way through all of them. And she was listening to something on the headphones Nate had leant her, faintly tapping to the beat on the book’s spine.

He had barely passed through the doorway before Amaya was looking over to him. Even without her totem, Nate swore she had superhuman senses. She took the headphones off and slid over to make room for Nate to slouch beside her on the bed.

“Whatcha listening to?” he asked. “Please tell me you’ve finally gotten around to my early Springsteen playlist. I know Greetings From Asbury Park is a little rough around the edges, but it’s, like, the foundation of everything.”

“I thought that was Elvis,” she said, smiling at him.

“Well yeah, but this is Springsteen. Nothing beats Springsteen.”

Amaya hummed a response, humoring him a bit. The earnest way he loved music was charming, but the constant addition of new playlists to her phone had gotten a bit overwhelming.

“Actually, I was curious, so I asked Gideon to pull some ska for me. I wanted to see what the big fuss was, why it made you so upset,” she said, marking her place in the book.

“Wait, what?”

“And then Ray overheard me asking and said he would make me a playlist too. He really seems to think I would like some of it.”

Nate sat bolt upright. “Hold up, Ray likes ska?”

“I mean, I guess it’s hard to really tell, he’s so enthusiastic about everything, but–“

“I’ve never been so betrayed,” he said, cutting her off.

Amaya laughed and shook her head fondly at him. “That seems a little dramatic, Nathaniel.”

“We don’t keep things from each other!” Nate said, throwing his arms in the air and practically leaping off the bed. “And this is a big thing! It’s ska, Amaya. Ska!”

“You need to stop saying the word ska.” Amaya grabbed Nate’s hands to still them and to get him to look at her. “And I don’t know, some of it isn’t that different from Benny Goodman or Glenn Miller. It’s basically just big band music with a better beat.”

“Are you sure? Are your ears okay?” Nate freed his hands to reach up and hold Amaya’s face.“Have you been listening too loudly? Cause that can mess up the frequencies you can hear and–”

“I’m familiar with tinnitus,” Amaya said, a little exasperated. She took Nate’s hands in hers again and kissed them gently.“I really don’t understand what you have against it.”

Nate let out an exaggerated groan. “It’s dumb dudes in ironic Hawaiian shirts and checkerboard suspenders writing songs about pizza orgies. It’s a stupid genre full of stupid songs! It’s a pox on music!”

“Pizza orgies?” Amaya asked, horrified that those words would ever be put together. Nate opened his mouth to explain, but Amaya shushed him with a finger. “I don’t want to know. Whatever Gideon gave me, it is definitely not about that.”

Amaya put the headphones over Nate’s ears and pressed play on her phone. There was a faint, tinny sound that leaked from the headphones, the song she had just been listening to. She leaned back to sit on the bed as he paced back and forth across the room with an intense look of concentration on his face. And it took a minute, but Amaya could see him start to nod along. She got up and smiled, standing in the way of his pacing and poking him gently in the chest.

“Told you,” she said, as he slid the headphones off to hang around his neck.

“Who is this? It doesn’t sound like anything my dumb friends liked in high school. This is like, good, fancy reggae,” he said, a little bewildered.

“No offense, but I don’t think a bunch of white teenagers in suburban Central City had a full grasp of Caribbean musical traditions.”

“Actually, Dr. Heywood, ska was a predecessor to reggae,” Gideon chimed in from overhead. “And the group you are currently listening to is The Skatalites.”

“Huh. No shit. Thanks Gideon,” Nate said.

“The Skatalites? That is a terrible name,” Amaya said.

“All ska bands have terrible names. Literally not one has a good name.”

“You’re being dramatic again,” Amaya said, before kissing him softly. “Regardless, I still like the music.”

“I’m sorry. You know how I get about this stuff.”

“I know. And it’s a little ridiculous. Endearing, but ridiculous.”

“And I still have to have a talking to with Ray.”

Amaya laughed, warm and fond, and put the headphones back on Nate’s ears, pushing him away as he started to dance at her, terrible and exaggerated.

**Author's Note:**

> My life's motto is essentially "Ska is good and you should listen to it," because ska is good and you should listen to it! It's fun to dance to! Some of it is bad, but a lot of it isn't! (Also the pizza orgy song is real, it's a Planet Smashers song called Super Orgy Porno Party and it is Not Good, but it is fun).
> 
> If you too have in depth feelings about ska as a genre, please share them with me over on [tumblr](http://angrypedestrian.tumblr.com).


End file.
